Bucknell Woods 

Official's Comments

Results - By Course Results - Inc Splits Results - By Club
Organiser Who booked the weather? Can they do it for our next event, Salcey Forest. For me turning up to open the Assembly area field to find it flooded with sheep. Ringing anyone's door bell at 07:30 any morning is done with care, then to carry on a conversation about the animals through the walls was not a good start. The Sheep were moved out and we had an empty field. Self Registration offers the club like SMOC an opportunity to re-deploy manpower to other areas required by an event, even it was seen as a low key event. To which ends I want to thank all the SMOCies who turned out to run the event.

I am pleased so see so many people at the event who have yet to pledge their allegiance to one of the local Orienteering Clubs. For those who it was there first event I hope you enjoyed your introduction and we will see you at other events. The map has seen a lightening in the green stakes which bodes will for the future, we wait for a white forested map which our map and planner assures us is on the way. 

There appears to have been some hick up in the results which mainly seem to be linked to hiring of e-punches for second runs and some people's times were longer than the courses were open but the investigation is on going.

Roger Williams

Planner

As you probably noticed, the Forestry Commission felled the central part of the woods prior to the event. They are also thinning out the hawthorn, which now makes Bucknell a much more pleasant place to orienteer. So, in the future, when we have remapped the southern part of the map as well we should have a good Badge area to offer you.  However, in the present, we had to make a new map in a hurry for the event. I received no adverse comment and think we did a reasonable job in the time available.

The felled areas were simply too dangerous for competition. Avoiding them and the bulk of the residual hawthorn dictated the structure of the courses. However, the spread of times, lack of many miss punches and pleasant comment from finishers indicates that your day wasn’t too badly disrupted.

I received some good constructive comment from a couple of experienced planners. Thank you for that. Experience is only of true value if it’s shared.

A thank you to the SMOC mapping team for helping to produce the map. And another one to Steve Hardy and Karen Vines for controlling in an efficient but hassle free manner.

John Shaw

Controller

In the first place congratulations to John for not only producing a set of courses that took you to the nicest parts of a rapidly improving forest but also for updating the map. When John took on the task of planning he thought he might need a few minor map revisions. In fact extensive an extensive re-survey was required; hence the relative lack of ditches - there simply wasn't time to map all that were there - John's option of only mapping major ditches produced a consistent map though did effectively shoot himself in his planning foot but missing out on many excellent control sites.

It was a delight to be out in the wood over the weekend of the event. Saturday morning was particularly pleasant where I was genuinely running in a sunlit forest. It's a pity it blew quite so hard during the week before the event as this stripped leaves from tree's and made spotting controls that bit easier.

Finally thanks to Karen for acting as assistant controller which meant I could get up that bit later on Sunday and serves her right for volunteering me for the job.


Steve Hardy, WAOC.

Last Updated - 20 November, 2003